West Indies, a team that couldn’t even qualify for this year’s ICC Cricket World Cup, defeated the Indian team in the second ODI rather comprehensively, sending chills down the spine of the subcontinent giants’ fans. More than the result, it’s the nature of experimentation head coach Rahul Dravid and the team management are doing with the team that worries fans. In fact, former India cricketer feels the ‘debacle of T20 World Cup 2022’ could be on the horizon for Rohit Sharma’s men.
India were bowled out in the 41st over with just 181 on board. West Indies chased down the total comfortably with 80 balls to spare and a match-winning half-century by their captain, Shai Hope. Senior batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were rested for the second ODI and Hardik Pandya was leading the team.
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra is not pleased with the experimentation. Not just the absence of Rohit and Kohli but also the decision to promote Ishan Kishan as an opener left Chopra baffled.
“It feels like the debacle of the 2022 T20 World Cup is repeating now. That is my big worry.
“Ishan Kishan is unlikely to open the batting at the WC. I’ll be really surprised if Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill open the batting and Rohit drops down to the middle order. I don’t agree with this at all. Should Virat Kohli drop down from No. 3, again absolutely no,” he said in a video on his YouTube channel.
“There is a temptation with Gill-Ishan because of the left-right combination, but there just is no place anywhere in the batting order. As much as I love Kishan, he is brilliant while opening, but his numbers at No.4 are worrying.If you don’t play him more at No.4 and plan to use him at No.4 during WC, it does not add up at all.”
Speaking of Kohli and Rohit, Chopra felt the senior duo did not require rest for this match.
“I don’t know why Rohit and Virat were rested; they haven’t played a lot of cricket because if you see, after WTC final there was a break of three weeks and there was only seven days of play in the India-WI tests. After that you play one ODI and leave the next. If you want to leave the T20s aside, leave it. I mean even if you don’t play T20s this year, how is it going to affect anyone because we don’t have the T20 WC this year. Rohit and Kohli anyway, do not feature in T20Is. So, you are relaxing just with the purpose of relaxing,” he said on JioCinema.
With ANI inputs
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